In This Issue

For Two Families in Storm’s Path, Memories Linger 10 Years Later

Michael A. Sawyers
Cumberland Times-News, June 2008
Republished with permission

You just don’t forget a tornado, especially one that either damaged or destroyed the place where you tuck your kids in at night or scratch your dog’s head or kiss your spouse good morning.

Just ask the Harmans of Frostburg or the Stevenses of Eckhart. These two families, in relating the day of the tornadic event or the weeks and years that have followed, speak for hundreds who came face to face with 210 mph winds on June 2, 1998.

Though 10 years have passed, the memories are vivid.

“We still think about it,” said Keith Harman, pausing and looking out the window on the west side of his Frostburg home.

Janet Stevens recalls the night she removed her twins from their attic bedroom in Eckhart literally minutes before that level of the house disappeared, She needs a moment before going on with the rest of the story.

The primary sentiment is the same at 400 Crestview Drive in Frostburg, that the Harmans call home, or down on Piney Mountain Road where the Stevenses still live.

Although the Harmans had $45,000 in damage and the Stevenses lost their entire home, they are grateful, lucky, they say. Nobody got hurt, not Keith or JoAnn Harman or son Eric, then 7, not Jay or Janet Stevens or twins Alex and Tristan, then 6.
Jay Stevens, realizing 10 years later that his actions were risky, admits to leaving the shelter of the basement and grabbing the family dog moments before the F-4 twister found their old family house.

“I told the family, ‘What are the chances that a tornado will hit our house?’ and I went for the dog,” Jay said.

A burglary of one’s home, we are told, leaves the victim with lingering trauma.

A tornado is more like a home invasion that enters the domicile, threatens and perhaps harms loved one, strews or removes possessions, and then leaves, taking with it the roof, further exposing the occupants to harm.

The two families have similar memories such as hundreds — thousands even — pieces of glass throughout their homes and numerous felled trees in their yards.

They agree that the blast hit quickly and departed just as swiftly.

Each home was insured by Erie Insurance and the families speak as one in praising the immediacy and adequacy of that company’s response to their individual tragedies.

But, each family, as well, has its story.

The Harman family

Keith Harman thought at first that the phone call was a joke.

“It was a telephone operator in Georgia and she said, ‘I have a message for you. Nobody is hurt, but a tornado has hit your home in Frostburg.’ ”
Photo courtesy of Cumberland Times-News, Wesley Haines
The Harman family stands outside their home at 400 Crestview Drive in Frostburg that was repaired following the 1998 tornado. In front is Blair, 7. In back, from left, are Eric, 17, JoAnn and Keith.

Keith was in a motel in Morgantown, W.Va., away from home on a job for his employer, Beitzel Corp. It was 11 p.m., tornado day.

“I was in Frostburg in an hour. If there were any other cars on I-68, I don’t remember seeing them,” he said. “I got to the house and amazingly the phone worked. I called JoAnn’s mom and she and Eric were there.”

About 1 a.m., Keith and JoAnn drove to their home, parked in the driveway and waited for the sun to rise.

Seated in her living room Wednesday, JoAnn recalled the day of the life-altering event.

“I was a dental assistant and had finished work. Eric had a baseball game, but they stopped it early because of the weather warnings. We went home and I didn’t think any more about the weather. It was a very pretty day.”

Fortunately, Keith’s farther, Paul, who lives at Wright’s Crossing, was staying abreast of the situation. He called JoAnn with a warning. “It was about 9:30,” JoAnn said.

“Eric was on our bed on the second floor watching TV so I got him and we started for the basement. When we reached the kitchen, the roof blew in and landed on the bed,” JoAnn recalled.

“I remember it sounding like a train,” Eric said. “The first couple years afterward, I would freak out when a storm came, but I don’t think about it much now.”

Eventually, mom and son climbed out of the basement.

“Firemen were there right away. Harry Youngblood put his helmet and his coat on Eric. They heard that another tornado might be coming,” JoAnn said. “In another 10 minutes the Maryland State Police were there and took us to my mother’s (Louise Chaney, Centennial Street).

When the sun rose Wednesday, June 3, Keith and JoAnn saw that a third of their roof was gone and general damage throughout the dwelling was significant.

“People started showing up and helping. We had no idea who some of them were or with whom they were affiliated,” Keith said. “There were reporters and TV helicopters everywhere. I was disappointed I didn’t get to see myself on TV,” Keith joked. “Though I have an uncle in Baltimore, and he said he saw me on one of the channels there.”

By August, the Harmans were living in their repaired home.

The Stevens family

Jay and Janet Stevens lived in a 1910 vintage house that had always been in his family.

“We had just remodeled everything. I mean everything,”

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Photo courtesy of Cumberland Times-News, Wesley Haines
Janet and Jay Stevens have a new home, but they got it the hard way because the 1998 tornado destroyed their original house on Piney Mountain Road in Eckhart.
Janet said. “The plumbing, the wiring. You name it.”

Both Stevenses teach. On June 2, 1998, Jay taught social studies at Westmar High School and Janet was the band director at Westmar Middle School.

Jay was grading papers at home. There had been weather warnings throughout the late afternoon and evening.

“We had actually gone to the basement three times and then came back up when nothing happened,” Janet said. “The kids’ teacher at Frost (Elementary), Pat Showalter, had been through the tornado in Salisbury on that Sunday, and on Monday she asked the students to bring some nonperishable foods to help people there.”

Janet is convinced that the lack of injuries during the Frostburg area tornado was because the Pennsylvania tornado of two days earlier convinced Marylanders to listen for and act upon warnings. “That’s why we went to the basement,” she said.

“I gave the kids a bath at 8:30 and they went to bed, but Tristan wouldn’t stop crying so I took them and put them in our bed (a level lower). About 9:30, Jay said, ‘Why don’t you make some popcorn,’ ” Janet said.

“I was channel surfing,” Jay said, “and I hit that one with the loud weather alarm and it said, ‘A tornado is imminent in Eckhart at 9:33 p.m.’ I looked at my watch and remembered wondering how accurate it was. We got into the basement and that’s when I went for and got the dog. When I got back, the lights went out. We put Tristan on the bottom, Alex on her, then Janet, then me.”

“A window flew open in the basement,” Janet remembered. “Then the air was full of dirt and dust. We thought it had missed us.”

Then, Jay went to the door at the top of the stairs, but it would not open. Furniture from throughout the house was piled against it. When the family finally opened the door, water was pouring down from broken pipes. They looked up to their ceiling and could see the stars, made visible by the fact that the tornadic clouds were gone, along with their roof.

“The first thing we thought to recover were toys for the kids,” Jay said. Ten months later, the family was in a new home, this one constructed a bit farther back from Piney Mountain Road than the original dwelling.

“The tornado strengthened us as a family,” Jay said. “We live five minutes at a time now.”

Jay recalled that exactly one year after the tornado, on June 2, 1999, a severe storm, along with weather warnings, moved in on the Frostburg/Eckhart area.

“I said to everybody, ‘What are the chances that a tornado will hit our house?’ ” Jay said. “We all looked at each other and went to the basement.”